#23 Don't Shoot the Messenger

I’m going to forgive you if you don’t remember the movie Speed, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock as the Burt Reynolds and Sally Fields of exploding busses.

But you might go back and watch it, because it contains one of the least-discussed and highly-useful PR and negotiation techniques out there.

Here’s the scene:

Keanu and Jeff Daniels are LAPD SWAT officers on a hostage call that obviously requires them to rappel in some elevator shafts. They banter by radio with tactical scenarios, testing each other. “Pop quiz hot shot,”

"Airport, gunman with one hostage. He's using her for cover; he's almost to a plane.You're a hundred feet away... Jack?

Keanu, with pure uncut 1990’s screenplay in his veins, answers bluntly:

"Shoot the hostage."

Shoot the hostage.

It’s a strategy whose name is also its description. El fin. But here’s an example.

Remember that time Jeff Bezos’s dick picks went viral around the internet? No, you don’t. That’s because when the National Enquirer threatened to “expose” the sexts, Jeff just shot the hostage.

Bezos published the full text of the Enquirer’s threats, including the detailed descriptions of which zippers which appendages were “penetrating.”

This kind of chess move sounds cool in a Keanu movie, and theoretical in a Bezo’s drama, but try to imagine the mental metal that takes in your life.

Let’s forge some steel.

Whether it’s you and Keanu on a SWAT call, or it’s just your email inbox filled with board members, you’re going to need a very stoic mindset. Low ego, high ration.

It also helps, as in most things, to have a high pain tolerance. Get thicker skin. (I’ve always just called this "patience.")

But WHO, exactly, is the hostage?  

In my experience, for most C-Somethings the hostage is your job. More specifically, it’s the lifestyle, respect, or opportunities that come from your job.

Or, it could be nude selfies. I’ve seen a lot more of those in crisis comms than I have ever in my personal life. (Sadly?)

Either way, you approach it all the same.

And the trick to shooting a hostage is NOT to just be a nihilist. Instead, the trick is for you to arrange the pieces, players, and narratives of the situation so that the specific outcome doesn’t matter.

Mohnish Pabrai has a saying I repeat constantly. He means it as advice for entrepreneurs and founders, but every C-Something should be mindful of it.

Mohnish says that in any situation with an uncertain outcome, like a coin flip, or whether or not you get to keep your job, you should make gambles where: “Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much.“

How on earth do you do this?

The most obvious answer is to diversify your options. Keep taking those recruiting calls. Pre-negotiate your severance. Have hobbies that bring you joy but also create real value—an Etsy store cannot ever be a second career.

And hoard cash. Remember what I said about thick skin? That might include your Porsche homies snickering about your Camry. It definitely includes a muzzle for your ego.

That’s all obvious. How else do you ensure outcomes don’t matter??

This is where communication plays a strong role. You shape the narrative.

Ole Jeffy B’s penetrating D? He shifted the narrative from “Bezos cheating on wife of 25 years,” to “Owner of Washington Post will not be extorted.” 

In the first version, the pics would hurt him, but in the second they’d actually reinforce his narrative. The outcome matters less.

Changing the narrative required a gamble that his privates might get published, but if they did it would boost his reputation as a media owner. Heads he wins, tails he doesn’t lose much.

The hardest part of this technique is narrative design.

It’s easy as a C-Something to shape it for what you want. But it’s much better in some cases to be mindful of what you don’t want, and make sure that would still get you something you do want. Heads win, tails still win.

But sometimes narrative isn’t enough. That’s usually in a hostage situation that has direct competition, otherwise known as a negotiation.

The best negotiators, the winners I’ve worked with, all have different techniques. But there’s a few skills they share. One skill that kills when there’s a hostage on the line is they care LESS.

It’s a weird quirk of some kinds of negotiations that whoever cares less about the outcome will win it. Real estate is very often this way, as are most private equity offers—regardless of whether you’re selling or buying.

In practice, this means moving slowly. So slowly it drives the other side insane. It also requires a real mindset shift—you absolutely cannot let yourself care about the deal.

(There’s an old saying in PE that “birds fly, fish swim, and deals fall through.” Imagine that’s a Dr. Seuss book and read it to yourself before bed.)

Say some company just dangled a big number in your face. Cool, that’s their trick. Remember, when dog owners show off their pooch rolling over for a treat, the trick they’re showing you is theirs not the dog’s.

Your trick is to be cool, no matter what the number. If it’s real it’ll work out. And if it’s not, think how much this distraction could cost you from your actual work.

Finally, there’s another scenario. And it’s somewhat common for C-Somethings:

It’s usually a situation where you’re going to take a risk that you KNOW is right for your org, but which MIGHT get you fired. Guess what? You’re the hostage.

You know what else, though? Let’s say you avoid that risk, even though you know it’s the right call, just in favor of the pleasant status quo. Now, you’re the virus.

I think you’ll be surprised how easy it can be to kill both and emerge happier and healthier than you’ve ever been.

And there will probably be an NDA that keeps you from telling the story, but I can assure it’s one I’d go see on the big screen.

Popcorn and all,
Jesse

PS: Linkz!

Here’s Mohnish Pabrai’s book, The Dhandho Investor. It can be a little too investment-focused in places (he’s a value guy, Buffett fan), but I strongly recommend it. Pabrai is a very smart thinker. His investment writing constantly leaks real wisdom, like cases above where it applies much more to mindset and strategy than specific spend. The Dhandho Investor is a close runner up to my Top 5 Books every C-Something should read. 

The clip from Speed, Keanu’s accidental entry into the Public Relations Hall of Fame.

And while we’re on 90’s movies, I think of THIS clip every time I type more than 10K words in a day, and my fingers hurt. 

Here’s Bezos shooting, Keanu-style. He did it on Medium, no less. Also, please enjoy the irony that his adversary in this case is literally named Mr. Pecker.

Song of the week: this was the Billboard Top 100 #1 hit during the pandemic weeks we were all locked inside. I have a friend who will make you look up the Billboard hit for the week you were conceived. DO NOT DO IT.

PSS: Share this with your friend who’s in a tough squeeze. Or, send it to anyone who likes 90's Keanu.